Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

The DePuy files (VIII): If you ask me, LRRPs weren’t very good in Vietnam

Over the years, a certain aura has grown up around the American LRRPs — “long range reconnaissance patrols” that operated deep behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. In 1969, they were folded into the 75th Ranger Regiment. In a 1985 interview, Gen. William DePuy said he wasn’t buying the hype. Of course, this may ...

Over the years, a certain aura has grown up around the American LRRPs -- "long range reconnaissance patrols" that operated deep behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. In 1969, they were folded into the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Over the years, a certain aura has grown up around the American LRRPs — “long range reconnaissance patrols” that operated deep behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. In 1969, they were folded into the 75th Ranger Regiment.

In a 1985 interview, Gen. William DePuy said he wasn’t buying the hype. Of course, this may just reflect the prejudice of a lifelong conventional arms officer against special operators. Or it may not. Here is his last shot.

Well, our long-range patrols, by and large, were not very good. They were kind of amateurish. Brave but amateurish. I think that’s true in every division.… IN most cases, we had to go out and extract them. As soon as they got into some kind of an interesting situation, they would be discovered, they’d come under fire, and they’d ask for help. Then it was like the Perils of Pauline, you’d go and rescue them.

(P. 37, “William DePuy Oral History Interview,” conducted by Ted Gittinger, 28 October 1985, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.)

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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